Posted on 07/30/2013 12:07:47 PM PDT by Nachum
Those who get their news from the mainstream media (or the Guardian) could be forgiven for believing that there are nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees from the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli War.
So often is that figure bandied around that most don’t understand that it only reflects the number of Palestinians qualifying for “refugee” benefits under the bizarre formula of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency by which the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (ad infinitum) of actual refugees continue to inherit this status. This designation is even bestowed upon those Palestinians who are already citizens of other countries.
(Using such demographic calculus, one could argue that – based on the number of Israelis whose ancestors fled Europe during the Holocaust, or fled Arab countries due to antisemitic persecution – the majority of Israeli citizens are “refugees”.)
Indeed, the number of actual Palestinian refugees from the Arab-Israeli War, out of the initial 750,000 or so after the war, is estimated to be closer to 30,000.
This data is important to remember as we follow media reports on recently renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians – specifically the issue of how to deal with Palestinian demands that some or all of the “refugees” be allowed to “return” to Israel.
(Excerpt) Read more at cifwatch.com ...
“The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one.”
Eric Hoffer
In this case, they have to “take back” people that never lived there.
There’s a good dose of irony in this topic. The descendants of people who left or were driven out 2,000 years ago are allowed to settle back there whilst people or their descendants who left or were driven out 60 years ago aren’t.
Israel’s policy has long been to accept those who can document that they were resident owners at the time of the flight of many Arabs from what is now Israel. This is admittedly a small number because of the inclination of Arabs to hold the majority among them in a kind of peasant serfdom, mere tenants.
Jews were forced to flee the Arab lands as certainly as Arabs were forced to flee Israel. Some quid pro quo should, in fairness, be allowed Israel. Since Israel took in the Jewish refugees, the places from which they departed should in fairness, accept responsibility for the Arab refugees in proportionate numbers.
In addition to the forcing Jews to flee, Christian Arabs were forced to flee Israel and Palestine and other places in the Arab world. Eastern Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth were, prior to the period from 1949 to 1967, majority Christian. During the time of Jordanian administration of East Jerusalem and the west bank, the religious complexion of these places were changed from majority Christian to majority Muslim. These Christian Arabs fled mostly to the U.S., Latin America and Australia.
In fairness, Israel could annex East Jerusalem and perhaps also Bethlehem and/or Nazareth, and hold out a right of return of the Christian Arabs and such of their descendants to the second that generation would choose to return to their homeland upon a peace settlement and the promise of religious liberty by Israel.
While we are prohibited from making any presumptions regarding the “final status” of Jerusalem, per the Camp David agreements, at some point that becomes a dead letter for lack of good faith on either or both parties. At some point, the Israelis should consider a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank to whatever borders Israel considers fair and workable.
People have been moving around or getting kicked out and around forever. At the end of the day it is still all about power - it was, it is and it will always be.
And you got to give it to the arabs. Even though they’re militarily far inferior to the israelis, they’ve used unconventional power to try to assert themselves, and so far one could argue that they’re winning. This includes:
1. suicide bombings and terrorism
2. playing the victim card
3. guilting western nations and intellectuals
4. exerting political pressure on western nature by flooding them with islamist immigrants
In this politically correct day and age military power is almost a handicap - controlling the organs of propaganda is a superior weapon.
Perhaps the UN should send me money, I have been to Palestine and I left. Only, until the Jews control it again I will NEVER go back.
Safer walking drunk through Central Park at midnight with dollar bills hanging out of your pockets.
Yet they would willingly take back my wife who can trace her ancestry back to per-1492 Spain and who has no ancestsors since that time who have lived in Israel.
You’ll get no argument from me about that.
The Israelis should be making great sport of the Europeans by offering free one-way passage to Europe for any Paleo who wants to go there, as part of a “resettlement” package.
To heck with that. Israel needs to annex the Golan, West Bank and Gaza Strip and expel the Palis.
It is not like the Palis will actually be able to hate Israel MORE if the Israelis do that.
The Arabs (there is no such thing as Palestinians) gambled and lost. They were asked to evacuate and after the war they were supposed to get all the loot from the dead Israelis. Instead, they are sitting in Jordan, Syria, etc., holding their weewees hoping that the UN can engineer a return from the countries that they currently reside in that hate their guts and want them to go away.
The Guardian asks if 4.9 million Palestinian "refugees" will "return" to cities...where they never lived
I’m saving that, thanks for posting it.
>If I fled my home today and if the local county recorders office would be destroyed, I could not prove I owned my home.
You should invest in a fireproof safe for your important documents.
That you are a person who does not take proper precautions speaks to your sympathies to others who do not. But, perhaps you can still understand that society cannot reward people who do not consider the consequences of their decisions.
We know that, prior to 1967, the overwhelming majority of Arabs in the place that is today Israel were tenants, paying rents to non-resident landlords (mostly in Damascus). So, there cannot be very many people remaining having a valid claim but simply lacking documentation. As part of a peace agreement, a process could be established by which a quota is allowed for undocumented claims, to be filled during a certain time period, perhaps with judges drawn from the Arab world to make the determinations.
I notice you express no sympathy for the Jews who fled the Arab world, or for the Christian Arabs who fled the Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As an American, I do not judge others based on race or religion. To me, all men are created equal. But for you, it is o.k. for Arabs to profit by forcing the Jews to leave, thereby being able to buy their land at a distress price or even seizing it with no payment at all. Ditto the Muslim Arabs with the Christian Arabs.
No. We Americans have had our own experiences with this. The internment of Japanese Americans and the theft of their property; and, the trail of tears when President Andrew Jackson allowed his political allies in Mississippi and elsewhere to take the land away from the Indians of those place, and force them to relocate to the present state of Oklahoma.
In justice, a peace settlement should recognize the debits as well as the credits of Israel and of the other countries involved. How many Jewish refugees did Israel take in, and net that number from the the number of Arabs who fled Israel. Ditto with the countries who caused Jews and Arab Christians to flee. I am not afraid of fair treatment of the refugee problem.
By the way, would you know how the Arab countries accommodate refugees, and how Israel, the US, the Latin American republics and Australia have accommodated Jewish and Arab Christian refugees?
In the Arab countries, refugees are placed in internment camps, for which the UN makes payments to the governments for their maintenance. As a consequence, the refugee problem remains forever. In democratic countries, the refugees or at least their children come to be citizens and assimilate into the general population. Even so, I do think some of the Arab Christians would like to return to their homeland if there is a peace settlement and if freedom of religion is guaranteed.
Don’t stop now... There’s more to rant about.
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